Carbon credits from Western Australia's multiple use public native forests: a first pass assessment

The object of this report was to analyse the carbon credits that could be generated by stopping all harvesting in the public native forests covered by the Conservation Commission of Western Australia's Draft Forest Management Plan 2014-2023 (FMP forests). These forests cover an area of ~850,000 ha and have produced 300,000-500,000 m3 yr-1 of logs since the reforms in the native forest sector in the early 2000s.

The proposal to stop all harvesting (the project) could generate a number of different types of carbon credits. Here it was assumed that it led to two specific types: forest management (FM) credits and Kyoto-Australian carbon credit units (Kyoto ACCUs). FM credits (and debits) are the credits (debits) that will be recorded in Australia's international greenhouse compliance accounts if it accounts for FM in the post-2012 era.

The results suggest that, on average, the project would lead to the generation of between 2.2 and 2.4 million FM credits yr-1 over the period 2013-2032.

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